Public moralities and markets in organs

Area of Science:

• Bioethics
• Sociology
• Transplantation Medicine

Background:

• The ethics of financial incentives for organ procurement are debated.
• Existing arguments often rely on socioempirical premises requiring critical assessment.
• Organ donation is sometimes framed as a reciprocal social interaction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To challenge the perspective that organ donation is primarily a social interaction.
• To argue that socioempirical assessments support organ commercialization.
• To re-evaluate the debate on financial incentives in organ procurement.

Main Methods:

• Critical analysis of socioempirical premises in the organ donation debate.
• Philosophical argumentation.
• Reinterpretation of existing observations on organ procurement.

Main Results:

• The socioempirical premises underpinning current ethical debates on organ procurement need critical assessment.
• Observations used to support a social interaction model of organ donation actually support commercialization.
• A new perspective is proposed, favoring the commercialization of human organs.

Conclusions:

• The ethical debate on financial incentives for human organs requires a re-evaluation of its foundations.
• Viewing organ donation as a reciprocal social interaction does not preclude commercialization.
• Commercialization of human organs is supported by a critical assessment of socioempirical factors.